Ideas worth spreading

The ocean's shifting baseline

281,268 views | Daniel Pauly • Mission Blue Voyage

The ocean has degraded within our lifetimes, as shown in the decreasing average size of fish. And yet, as Daniel Pauly shows us onstage at Mission Blue, each time the baseline drops, we call it the new "normal." At what point do we stop readjusting downward?

The ocean has degraded within our lifetimes, as shown in the decreasing average size of fish. And yet, as Daniel Pauly shows us onstage at Mission Blue, each time the baseline drops, we call it the new "normal." At what point do we stop readjusting downward?

This talk was presented at an official TED conference. TED's editors chose to feature it for you.

About the speaker

Daniel Pauly

Fisheries biologist

See speaker profile

Daniel Pauly is the principal investigator at the Sea Around Us Project, which studies the impact of the world's fisheries on marine ecosystems. The software he's helped develop is used around the world to model and track the ocean.

Learn more

This talk was presented at an official TED conference. TED's editors chose to feature it for you.